Sunday, April 13, 2008

A Few More Slings and Arrows to Suffer

I had forgotten how wonderful the characters are in Slings and Arrows. At the end of the first season, Hamlet is finally going forward, despite the best efforts of a member of the administration to sabatoge the play so that . . . well, watch the series to get the details of the motivation. Everybody’s having a good time (never mind what the critics might say about the production), and there’s happieness for everyone!

They’ve given the character in the middle in the image above (Nahum—he’s an African-Canadian who talks light-heartedly about the troubles in the African nation from which he imigrated) has a marvelous thing to say to the administrator who’s trying to sabotage the enterprise. The administrator is trapped backstage—he stayed too late and can’t get through to his seat—and he determines to say to watch the play from the wings.

Nahum points his flashlight at him and says, pointedly, “If a farmer names his pigs, it makes the slaughter very difficult.”

And then he walks away, leaving the administrator to ponder that bit of wisdom.

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Bardfilmis normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilmis a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:

KJ is a professor of English and Literature at a small Christian liberal arts college. In addition to courses entitled “Shakespeare” and “Introduction to Shakespeare,” he teaches a course called “Shakespeare and Film.” Recently, he developed a course titled “Modern Shakespearean Fiction.” Shakespeare is also integrated into nearly all his other courses, including courses on the Literature of Food and the Literature of Humor. Additionally, he is the author of Bardfilm: The Shakespeare and Film Microblog. But you may have known that already.